This is how I made my pen bootable and run Puppy from it.
USB pendrive is F: on my machine. Make the necessary changes if it's other letter on your system.
From Windows to Puppy:
- download ISO
- extract initrd.gz, vmlinuz and pup_xxx.sfs (starting from 4.3, zp_xxx.sfs also needed)
- download syslinux.zip and unzip to pendrive
- open a console by pressing win+R, type cmd and press ENTER
- type f: and ENTER
- type syslinux F: and ENTER
- type exit and ENTER
- reboot

Assuming your machine boot from USB and it's the first boot device. You can also press F12 during BIOS check (should work on most systems)

This is how I made my pen bootable and run Puppy from it.
USB pendrive is F: on my machine. Make the necessary changes if it's other letter on your system.
From Windows to Puppy:
- download ISO
- extract initrd.gz, vmlinuz and pup_xxx.sfs (starting from 4.3, zp_xxx.sfs also needed)
- download and copy syslinux.exe to pendrive
- open a console by pressing win+R, type cmd and press ENTER
- type f: and ENTER
- type syslinux F: and ENTER
- type exit and ENTER
- reboot

Assuming your machine boot from USB and it's the first boot device. You can also press F12 during BIOS check (should work on most systems)

Welcome to Puppy!

Nice! I had hacked away on this in the past; wish I had this then! Good advice! Great for those that are in Windows and want to just give Puppy a try. Good job, T_hobbit!

I have had to do more things apart from stated above to be able to boot Puppy 4.3.1 from my pendrive. I list all the steps taken:

- Extract the files inside pup-431.iso to a temporary folder in the Windows desktop (I had problems to extract directly to the pendrive)
- Copy to the root of the pendrive all the files inside the temporary folder, except BOOT.CAT , ISOLINUX.BIN and the folder boot.images (with its content)
- Delete the temporary folder of Windows desktop (with all inside it)
- Rename all the copied files changing capital letters to lower case letters, so I have boot.msg , help.msg , initrd.gz , isolinux.cfg , logo.16 , pup_431.sfs and vmlinuz
- Change the name of isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg
- Rename pup_431.sfs to pup-431.sfs
- Download syslinux from the page stated in the official site (http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Download) -> http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/syslinux-3.83.tar.gz
- Extract only syslinux.exe to the Windows Desktop (it's inside syslinux-3.83\win32\)
- Delete syslinux-3.83.tar.gz
- Copy syslinux.exe to the pendrive root
- Delete syslinux.exe and its container folders from Windows desktop
- While holding the Windows key press R
- Type cmd and press Enter
- Type D: (or E: or F: , ....) and press Enter to go to the pendrive
- Type syslinux D: (or E: or F: , ...) and press Enter. A hidden file called ldlinux.sys is created
- Type exit and press Enter
- Delete syslinux.exe from the pendrive
- Reboot the computer
- Tell the BIOS to load from the pendrive (from the device selection menu or from setup)

Finished!

NB 1: no zp_xxx.sfs file has been seen nor needed
NB 2: my pendrive is only detected on the second consecutive boot (strange but real: I have to reboot when the BIOS asks for password)
NB 3: Only in the first boot I've been asked for the keyboard, locale, timezone and screen. After that everything works fine except the internet connection (with wired router in my case). To solve this I've had just to Menu - Setup - Network Wizard - eth0 - AUTO DHCP - Yes - Done
NB 4: Only in the first shutdown I have been asked if I wanted to create a session file. I've told that yes, in the pendrive itself, with no encryption, of 64MB
NB 5: Menu - Shutdown - "Power-off computer" goes well, but "Reboot computer" hangs after saving session. So I have to hold the power on/off button of the computer during some seconds so it powers off and then press it again to switch it on again

@zandarian: I don't went in such a detail 'cause I assumed some Windows knowledge on doing what I wrote, like extracting directly from inside an ISO, but... That's it!

zp_xxx.sfs are drivers for some hardware. If there is no such hardware, the file is not needed._________________T_Hobbit
Rebuilding old DOS Machine for Wing Commander Privateer and Puppy Old spare parts to give away - anyone interested

T_hobbit: no, but I will. I have 431 going on a flash drive, but, like I said, it took me hacking away at it.

So, here's a concept to think about, everyone: what about some type of exe file for the Windows people out there that would just install Puppy on a flash drive. Hmmm...something to think on? Would be marketable...pure Windows people might give Puppy a try more regularly if that was possible.

Yes, I know the Linux purists out there will shout, "Why do we care about those Windows people?!" Ok, I hear ya. But it would still be cool to see if something in that realm could be achieved.

That is out of my league...anyone even made an exe file? How tough would it be to set something like that up?

**Edit: how funny is that; I've made lots of pet files but never an exe. What about using something like this?

**Edit: how funny is that; I've made lots of pet files but never an exe. What about using something like this?

That would create a self extracting EXE file...with ZIP compression presumably or similar. It would be akin to any file in Unix that has the executable bit set.

I dunno that it could be pointed to specifically dump it's contents to a flash drive however.

That would involve a second file, another executable, that would do the job (the self-installer can be set to run an external command). The real magic would be to get that up and running, it could be a convoluted batch file or ideally another exe file...and then the user would have to grant all this malarky permission to execute._________________ASUS A1000, 800Mhz PIII Coppermine!, 192Mb RAM, 10Gb IBM Travelstar HDD, Build date August 2001.Last edited by sikpuppy on Tue 17 Nov 2009, 22:02; edited 1 time in total

...and then the user would have to grant all this malarky permission to execute.

It's Windows! Everything has permission!!

Ok, just kidding. The self extracting file doesn't already ask that? Using those instructions it gives the impression that all it consists of is packing the correct files up into that exe and then it would run, then say yeah, extract it here, then that should work, right? We really don't need anything to run, just dump it to a designated place, right?

**Edit: I have no problem messing with this, but it will be a couple of days; it actually sounds like fun to give it a shot. If someone beats me to it or has more input, rock on, go for it, or thanks for the helps. I'm going to use the steps that are listed out here by T_Hobbit and zandarian and whatever else is needed, but we'll give it a shot (again, if someone doesn't want to give it a shot first).

T_Hobbit: I went in detail in my first message and tried to use standard or official English to try to help the more possible people. I think this can help both people with not too much computer knowledge and people whose native language is not English (like me; sorry for my mistakes; for me it's difficult to catch the slang of some people who write in this forum). I think these things go with the open and universal philosophy of GNU/Linux.

T_Hobbit: in your first message nothing is told about syslinux.cfg . I think this file is mandatory.

Note 1 about my first message here: boot.msg , help.msg and logo.16 are not necessary (though the first 2 can be helpful and the last one, an image, can make the boot nicer). But to be able to boot without them syslinux.cfg has to be edited and changed. I'll try to post some example later.

Note 2 about my first message here: isolinux.cfg has to be renamed to syslinux.cfg because the first one is designed for a LiveCD and the second one for a LiveUSB. More info in http://syslinux.zytor.com/

Note 3 about my first message here: pup_431.sfs has to be renamed to pup-431.sfs because otherwise the boot doesn't complete. It seems to be a bug in the name.

Note 4 about my first message here: the capital letters of the files have to be changed to lower case letters because otherwise the boot doesn't complete. More info in http://puppylinux.com/flash-puppy.htm

steve_s: perhaps http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ is a solution for your proposal. I've tried it and it's very useful to make easily, quickly and automatically LiveUSBs of many Linux distributions from Windows (also avaiable for Linux).

steve_s: perhaps http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ is a solution for your proposal. I've tried it and it's very useful to make easily, quickly and automatically LiveUSBs of many Linux distributions from Windows (also avaiable for Linux).

First of all, zandarian, I think you and T_Hobbit are on the same page, just working out specifics.

I agree that unetbootin looks interesting, but this exe concept is not for me or other Linux'ers, but rather for pure Window's people.

I am envisioning having an exe file with a bunch of files in it, all those files needed to boot a usb drive. A Window's newbie says, cool, double-clicks it, it asks where to put the files? the Window's person puts the files on the usb drive, then it's good to go.

That is all we are working out here, right? In other words, just placing files on a flash drive would then allow it to be bootable? I can't remember if I needed to do any grub configuring or anything like that...

b) the LiveUSB can be used to boot Puppy freshly (not loading any saved session file). This is useful to use Puppy in other people's computers (loading our session file there can cause some problems). More information in http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=37116

NB 2: my pendrive is only detected on the second consecutive boot (strange but real: I have to reboot when the BIOS asks for password)

This happened also when I had Slax in this pendrive and used it with this same computer. Well, it's really a MP3 player. I think I remember that in other computers this pendrive could boot Slax in the first boot. In the other hand, another pendrive of mine always boot at the first attempt, no matter if Slax or Puppy is in it, and no matter in which computer it's plugged. This other pendrive is just that (not a MP3 player). Not a big problem.

Quote:

NB 5: Menu - Shutdown - "Power-off computer" goes well, but "Reboot computer" hangs after saving session. So I have to hold the power on/off button of the computer during some seconds so it powers off and then press it again to switch it on again

The same happens in this same computer with the Slax I have now in another pendrive. But Windows Vista (installed in a hard drive) can reboot well. Any help for this? Perhaps this could have something to do with the fact that I executed syslinux from Windows (syslinux.exe)?

Quote:

Note 4 about my first message here: the capital letters of the files have to be changed to lower case letters because otherwise the boot doesn't complete. More info in http://puppylinux.com/flash-puppy.htm

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I remember that appart from this or instead of this this other problem happened: no session saving was offered when shutting down after the first boot. steve_s says something related to this in http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=49077

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